THE MAYFAIR SET
III
CONVERSATIONS
WITH AN
UNCLE
SELECT
CONVERSATIONS
WITH
AN UNCLE
(now extinct)
and two other
reminiscences by
H. G. WELLS
LONDON:
JOHN LANE
NEW YORK
THE MERRIAM COMPANY
1895
Copyrighted in the United States.
All rights reserved.
Second Edition
TO
MY DEAREST
AND BEST FRIEND
R. A. C.
PREFATORY
He was, I remember, short, but by no means conspicuously short, and ofa bright, almost juvenile, complexion, very active in his movements andgarrulous—or at least very talkative. His judgments were copious andfrequent in the old days, and some at least I found entertaining. Attimes his fluency was really remarkable. He had a low opinion ofeminent people—a thing I have been careful to suppress, and hisdissertations had ever an irresponsible gaiety of manner that may haveblinded me to their true want of merit. That, I say, was in the olddays, before his abrupt extinction, before the cares of this worldsuddenly sprang upon, and choked him. I would listen to him,cheerfully, and afterwards I would go away and make articles out of himfor the Pall Mall Gazette, so adding a certain material advantage tomy mental and moral benefit. But all that has gone now, to my infiniteregret; and sorrowing, I have arranged this unworthy little tribute tohis memory, this poor dozen of casual monologues that were sopreserved. The merits of the monument are his entirely; its faultsentirely my own.